Everett Sausage Fest a fall family classic

Visitors to this year’s annual Everett Sausage Fest will see — and smell and taste — lots of familiar things.

There’s the famous homemade sauerkraut, of course. And the specially made in Oregon Sausage Fest sausages.

There will be carnival rides, crafts and corn on the cob — Sausage Fest standards.

But something — someone actually — will be missing.

That someone is a clown: Local television icon and kid hero JP Patches won’t be there this year. He was a longtime part of the festival’s entertainment, one of those acts visitors would count on seeing.

JP Patches, whose out of make-up name was Chris Wedes, died July 22 at the age of 84.

Sausage fest senior adviser Frauna Hoglund said, however, that there’s plenty of other entertainment planned at Immaculate Conception/Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Everett for this three-day festival, which starts Friday.

Sausage Fest is like a fair wrapped inside Oktoberfest: It’s family oriented with a traditional Bavarian dinner and food booths, children’s games, bingo, a carnival and two stages, the Family Entertainment Stage and the Bavarian Beer Garden and Stage.

There are also dozens of arts and crafts to peruse or purchase.

This year, bingo has been brought outside the school and under a big tent to accommodate more people. Children’s games have been moved inside the school.

Also, even when you are done with Sausage Fest — but not quite — you can bring some of the fest home with you. The homemade sauerkraut and sausage can be packaged for takeout.

The sausage and kraut have been made over the years using traditional recipes “you won’t find anywhere else,” Hoglund said.

There’s ample parking and a free shuttle from Everett Station that runs about every 20 minutes. There is no gate charge to get into Sausage Fest.

There is also an ongoing raffle with a grand prize of $10,000.

The Sausage Fest is popular, drawing some 25,000 folks throughout the weekend. Hoglund said its popularity remains after 36 years because there are so few festivals in Everett.

“It’s a festival that’s family-oriented so people like it and it offers a lot of things for them to do,” Hoglund said. “We’re just all excited and ready to get started.”

The Sausage Festival runs from noon to midnight Friday and Saturday and noon until 7 p.m. Sunday at 2619 Cedar St., Everett.